On My Mind
by Donut Dragon
Summary: Natsu and Lucy love each other, they are best friends. No matter how often their relationship gets confused for more, that's all there is. There close friendship is about to hit a harsh trial: relationships. Somehow, they need to keep their own friendship in check, while also dealing with their new found love lives. If only it weren't such a draining task.
1. Chapter 1

For the fourth time that week, Natsu was at his and Igneel's shared home during school hours.

The clock was telling him that it was two hours past noon, and in another two hours and twenty minutes his particularly cheerful friend would knock on his door and say "Natsu, why didn't you come to school today?" in a very stern voice. To that, he would respond by mumbling and scratching his head. Then, she would sigh and give up covering her face with her soft hands and shaking her head. She'd look at him sadly, and finally she would utter to him that he should wear a shirt when he is in the presence of a lady.

As if she were a lady! If anything, she would be closer to a tomboy, although she did not know how to dress to fit that category quite well; lady on the outside; tomboy on the inside. Or at least he liked to think so.

Natsu groaned, opening his mailbox and peeking into the dark space; two envelopes. One of them was a bill - boring. The other, though, seemed a lot more interesting.

_ To N. Dragneel_

_ From Lisanna Strauss_

The name meant more to him than anything else: like a message from the past, a ghost, a gleam of hope.

He tore the envelope up right then, as quickly as was possible without tearing the document inside. Natsu retrieved the letter, carefully unfolding the clean paper to see neat, cursive writing. Purple gel pen? _Cute._

Aside from that, three of the hastily written words stuck out to him. A three word sentence, in particular, ending with a point of exclamation.

_ I'm coming back!_

* * *

><p>Running, it took Lucy Heartfilia five minutes to get from Histoy class to the swimming pool. She didn't need to stop due to any nosy teachers stopping her, and since her class was let out just before the bell, the traffic was clear.<p>

Fifteen minutes to dress - if you spend too much time talking to Juvia about how her body is not ugly and that she should stop doubting herself. Whether or not her crush is into her at all, that doesn't mean her body is not beautiful. With an hourglass figure, a gorgeous head of blue curls and a slight toning to her body Juvia could get any guy she wanted. Except for Gray, of course.

Another two minutes passed because she lost her blue and white swimsuit for a moment. Luckily it had simply been beneath her discarded school shirt.

In short: it takes much_ too_ long for Lucy to get from History class to the diving block.

Lucy arched her back, stretching out all of the left over strain from sitting down all day. She looked over to her right, where Juvia had also taken the block. She seemed to be using the time to fix her cap.

Juvia and Lucy liked to call their gatherings 'club activities,' despite that they weren't enough to be a club. A club would require five people. Both had considered adding others, but nobody had ever been interested. And when they asked if they could add the boys to their team?

"Of course not!" administration had said. "Boys and girls should be separated."

"If Juvia wins," said Juvia, her habit of speaking in third person always gave Lucy a sense of familiarity around the girl. That's just how Juvia is. "Then Juvia's love rival will have to stay away from Gray-sama for the next week!"

Lucy grimaced, knowing all too well that she had - on many occasions -been accused of having an interest in this 'Gray-sama'. Yes, she was the supposed love rival of Juvia's. "Well if that's what you're going to bet on, then if _I_ win, you have to stop calling me your love rival."

Juvia nodded, and the two girls launched off the diving blocks, breaking the water's surface. Cold water rushed over Lucy's body as she went under. Since it was a friendly competition, she had not bothered with a swimming cap, and her hair floated around her head for a moment before she shot off. Her feet propelled her forward and up, and soon her arms hit chilly air. Then her back.

One stroke. Two strokes. Three strokes; head up.

She found her rhythm easily thanks to so much practice.

When finally she had kicked her way to the finish line, Lucy pulled herself out of the water, gasping for breath. A terrifying sight awaited her; Juvia Lockser already standing above her. "Juvia wins!" the victor claimed, smiling sweetly as if she had not just banned Lucy from talking to a pretty decent guy. In fact, he was number two on her list of dateable guys.

Not that she had much interest in any of the guys on that list anyway. Even number one she had never thought of in an "I'm totally attracted to you," sort of way.

Lucy sat on the edge of the pool skimming her toes along the water's surface. "I'll win next time," her soft lifts curved into a smile. "Oh! I forgot!"

Juvia did not need to be reminded of what was on Lucy's mind, rather, she threw a towel over Lucy's shoulders. "Natsu-san is at home, right?" she spoke as Lucy clutched the towel around her dripping body. She nodded. "So you need to make sure he is okay?"

_ Sigh._

"He keeps staying home, and it's starting to worry me," she placed her hand over her eyes shaking her head. Natsu's behaviour recently had been getting worse. He had been bad when she met him, but she thought he had begun to turn around. Now those thoughts had gone out the window. Natsu was _not_ getting better.

Lucy stood, her feet slapping the tile which surrounded the pool. "Do you have any idea what it could be, Juvia?"

Juvia rattled her head from side to side, "Juvia isn't as close to Natsu-san as you are!" Lucy was about to head into the lockers when she bumped into someone. Throwing a quick 'sorry' at the girl she continued, urging Juvia to accompany her. "Have you tried Erza-san?"

The truth of the matter was that Erza Scarlet was so busy raising her first born, that she hadn't been able to talk to her nephew in a long time. "No..." Lucy sighed, shaking her head. "I guess I'll try to talk to her, soon."

"Excuse me?" footsteps behind them. "Blondie!"

Of all of the people in that room at that exact moment, only one of them had hair that was yellow enough to earn such a nickname. Lucy turned around, Juvia following suit behind her.

The girl who Lucy had bumped into had long red hair tied in a plat behind her. She wore the school uniform, leaving the neckline agape and revealing. She had a wild look to her eyes that would fail to go away despite all the eye makeup she had tried. According to rumours, Flare Corona was from a bad crowd. Her family was said to be all drunkards; some of them even went as far as to say that they were violent.

Lucy gulped. "What is it, Flare?"

Flare caught up to them. "I've been watching you..." for a moment, Lucy looked as if she was going to make a loud noise of confusion. Her mouth was parted when Flare spoke again "Swimming. I've been watching both of you swim... I wanted to know if I could join you?"

Juvia and Lucy exchanged uncertain glances. Neither knew what to do. If the rumours were true, then she could very well be as violent as her family.

Sometimes it's good to think on things, talking it out with Natsu would definitely help, too. "H- how about you ask us again tomorrow?" Lucy said light-heartedly. She smiled to make it more convincing. "I need to go right now to help out a friend!"

Juvia quickly followed up with a few words of agreement, nearly pushing Lucy the rest of the way to the dressing rooms. Flare remained where she was, watching both of them curiously; hopefully. The look on her face was innocent, and as Lucy looked back she felt almost guilty for doubting that sweet girl at all.


	2. Chapter 2

About an hour had passed since school was over, and Natsu found himself sitting on a filthy old couch in one of the five rooms that made up his small home. Waiting for Lucy to get there was always a bore. He just sits there for hours, black and grey tabby sitting on his lap, waiting by the window and watching the world pass.

Boring.

But this time, his mind was occupied.

_ Lisanna is coming back. Lisanna is coming back._ His mind chanted it like an irritating song that won't go away. _Lisanna is coming back._

He should be excited, but he only felt stressful. Dreadful. It crushed him with bulldog teeth. Who is _Lisanna_? How can it still be _her_ after she left him for two years? Could she possibly be the same person she was before?

His self control was lost; Natsu dropped the cat - Happy - to the floor and rushed into room number two of the five room house. Yes. He was gonna do_ that_. In the kitchen, he swung the cupboard open reaching into the back. It was the second shelf to the top, and barely accessible to him. _Lisanna is coming back._ He didn't stop reaching until he heard a knock on the door. "Natsu?" Lucy called, and she knocked louder.

If you've ever drawn back a rubber band to shoot at something or someone, then consider the rubber band for a moment. Consider that this rubber band knows that they are going to fly through the sky. They know that they are going to hit some poor person and give them a stinging feeling on their arm. You were about to feel the guilt of hurting someone, but at the same time, the satisfaction of the prank. If you were that rubber band, and suddenly the person holding you stopped, let you relax, how would you feel?

Natsu felt like that. Like he was about to fall back, do something that would please him, but gnaw at him with guilt. Then the knock on the door stopped him. He carefully let the cupboard close, feeling allayed by the sudden disturbance. He left behind the kitchen, picking up Happy as the cat brushed past his foot. With a cat in his arm, he used the other to open the door for Lucy.

"You smell like pool water." Neither of them ever bothered with common greetings.

"You skipped school today."

"You're here early."

"You didn't do _that._"

It was at that point that Natsu decided to move out of the doorway and let Lucy in. Naturally, Lucy's first action was to snatch the tabby from Natsu's hands and take up the filthy red couch. "I called dad, he thinks I'm with Juvia, so we have the whole night," Lucy said. Natsu rolled his eyes and turned on the TV. Since he would be alone for the next week, he had no excuse to get Lucy to leave; there's a free room.

His silence must have gotten to her, because she didn't take her eyes off of him until she spoke again. "I'm worried about you, Natsu,"

Natsu sighed, but grinned at her, regardless. "Look, Lu, I'm fine! Do I look drunk to you?" he gave her the most sober smile he could. Was there even such a thing as a drunk smile? If he had ever seen one, he probably drunk the memory away.

Lucy didn't look pleased at all by his assurance. "You've missed five days in the past week!"

"Four days,"

"That doesn't matter!"

"It doesn't? Then why are you sitting here scolding me about it?"

"Natsu!"

Another sigh. She clearly was not in the mood for games that afternoon. What a shame! He loved playing with Lucy. He hated to see her looking upset with him.

It took Natsu a long time just looking at her before he finally got out what was on his mind - or a portion of that. In fact, the most urgent portion (or, at that moment it seemed like it): "Lisanna is coming back... Saturday..."

Lucy's jaw unhinged and she stared at Natsu for a moment. "But that can't be it... You liked Lisanna?" Lucy had heard all of his stories about a girlfriend from two years ago; Lisanna Strauss. She began to tease after a while, so he stopped to avoid the embarrassment. But never in her life had Lucy had a crush on someone, never anyone Natsu had heard about. Maybe she didn't understand how he felt about the whole ordeal.

You don't just walk away from a relationship for two years and then come back as if nothing has changed.

What if Lisanna changed? Why didn't she send him more letters? Emails? Did she have other boyfriends? Would she still like him? Would he still like her? Why did she forget about him for all that time and then suddenly decide to tell him when she was coming back? His questions got out of hand, making him itch for a drink. Lucy was staring at him. He must have been silent for too long.

"Yes I _liked _her!" he groaned finally, leaning back on Lucy. She would become his bed, and he would take satisfaction in the annoyed shriek that came from a teenage girls' mouth when a heavy guy used her as a pillow. Only Happy managed to escape him, leaping from the couch before he could be touched. "But the problem is, Lucy, that I haven't seen this gorgeous girl for two years now! There's so much that could be different now,"

It must have taken her a while to understand, because Lucy didn't reply to him for a long time. "Maybe..." she began, sounding thoughtful (funny that she could be so level-headed while her lap was being crushed by Natsu's lazy ass). "You should start by getting off me..."

Natsu sighed and did as he was told, then sat on the arm of the couch. It wasn't her lap, so Lucy didn't complain. She _did_ shake her head, though. "When she gets back, just go back to being friends for a bit. Get to know her, see how much she's changed.. Maybe you two will get along better than you did before she left!" Her cheerfulness was inspiring. Natsu couldn't help but smile right along with her.

"Alright Lucy! I'll do what you say, and if that doesn't work, I'll hold you personally responsible for the failure of my love life!" he said in utter casualty.

"What?! I'm responsible?!"

"Uh huh!" Lucy raised her leg, only to kick him off of the seat and face first into the carpet.

* * *

><p><em>Dear Mum, <em>

_ I'm writing this from Natsu's house. Don't tell dad. You know from previous letters that Natsu and I have nothing going on. _

_ But anyways, Natsu seems like he'll have Lisanna again, soon. I'm happy about it. But now who's gonna spend Christmas with me? It's a time to spend with a boy, but I'm not sure which boy... Maybe with Loke. He's usually not too bad. I'm sure he already has plenty of girls he would rather go with, than me, though._

_ Some girl wants to join the swim club with Juvia and I. It's not much of a club, and we do need more members.. But she is kind of odd. She acts creepy. And there are lots of scary rumours around her, so I'm not sure. But if you were around you would probably tell me something like "Don't listen to what other people say, Lucy! Make your own judgement of them," or something like that. I'm not too good with words yet, but I'll get better!_

_ Natsu's worrying me again, though. He's skipped every day this week, so far. He's stressed about Lisanna, but I'm sure it's something more than that. I'm sure that Igneel will have something to do with that since he left again last week. I've checked the cupboard though, and I don't think he's touched any of the drinks in a while, which is good. _

_ I'm staying with him tonight to make sure things stay okay with him. _

_ As for me, I'm still not able to beat Juvia in a race, but I'm gonna make it soon! I'm sure of that! I'm always getting faster, and I can hold my breath longer than anyone else in my class. And I still haven't found a boyfriend... I just can't find any guys who are right for me. _

_ - Love from Lucy_

* * *

><p>Natsu looked at the bright red numbers on the alarm clock. The time <strong>(6:02)<strong> stared at him like some sort of demon on drugs. It was _daring_ him to go back to sleep. What a dick that alarm clock was, that even after he had hit it on the head to knock it out, it would continue to irritate him.

Natsu sat up, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes and discovered that Lucy had, yet again, fallen asleep at his desk. She was lying on top of a piece of paper covered in messily written words. Her pen was askew, and her mouth open as she snored lightly. At least her hair wasn't too much of a mess. If it was, she'd take forever in the bathroom. He needed some time to gel his hair, he couldn't do that with a girl taking up all the space. Natsu leaned over her, thinking _Idiot..._ as he removed the piece of paper from her hands, satisfied to get it out from under her before she drooled on it.

"Another letter for Layla.." he murmured. The temptation to read it was strong, and he would be lying if he said he didn't take a sneak peek. Lucy wrote letters like that all the time and leaving them in front of him was almost too tempting. Guilt kept him from reading the whole thing. But words and phrases often liked to stick out like diamonds in the rough.

A smirk crossed Natsu's face, soon creasing into a slight frown_. Stupid Lucy is worrying about me again... Maybe she really _does_ need a boyfriend._


End file.
